Origin of the Fittest: Physiology

20 October 2018

Kimberlie Burns - a legendary Director of the Histology Core Facility at UNC School of Medicine (1989-2018), and one of the foremost experts on histotechnology of cells growth, immunohistochemistry, and transmission and scanning microscopy joins the Lab as a Research Specialist. Stay tuned…

10 September 2018

Our finches cover the program of spectacular 2018 Packard Fellows Reunion Conference, including our presentation on the evolutionary cycles of functional controls in metabolic networks.

23 August 2018

Sarah Britton begins her doctoral research in the Lab. Sarah brings with her extensive experience in studies of avian life history evolution, most recently from her Master's thesis at Western Carolina University, as well as a fascinating record of outdoor education leadership programs from Wyoming to Tanzania.

10 July 2018

The Lab announces availability of 2019 G. G. Simpson Postdoctoral Fellowship -- established to honor Prof. Simpson's work at the department -- to support a productive and creative scientist to work on outstanding evolutionary problems of their own choosing. Details and application are here.

8 July 2018

The City of Missoula installs our new photo and information interpretive signs on Waterworks Hill -- one of the most heavily used trailheads in town. "The new signs communicate the natural and cultural heritage of the area, the conservation history, and the importance of stewardship".

7 July 2018

Adam Welu, whose five-year research tenure in the lab included everything from the study of age-related polymorphism in enzymatic networks to a project on ontogenetic tissue transformation accepts a position in the School of Medicine of Saint Louis University.

5 July 2018

1 July 2018

The Lab is awarded a new NSF Evolutionary Processes Cluster grant to study the evolution of cell lineage hierarchies in ongoing adaptive diversifications.

20 May 2018

Laura Stein, whose undergraduate research in the Lab garnered essentially all known awards at this University, including a delivery of the 2009 Commencement Address, accepts a professor position at the University of Oklahoma, making her the fifth lab undergrad to become an academic faculty.

12 May 2018

Pyrrhuloxia on our cover of the new JEBpaper eleganty illustrates the combinatorial nature of avian carotenoid network evolution.

1 May 2018

The Lab is awarded a Major Instrumentation Grant to acquire a state-of-the-art, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) system – one of the most powerful new tools in analytical chemistry. The machine detects compounds in a parts-per-trillion range, runs x30 faster than a regular HPLC clunking next to it, simultaneously identifies dozens of compounds, and comes with a box of Kimwipes for when PIs get hysterical watching it do in an hour what took a month of hard work before.

28 April 2018

Xander Posner, aka The Master of the Hopcroft-Karp Algorithm scripts for the network controllability projects, begins his graduate research, appropriately in biostatistics and epidemiology, at UC Berkeley.

8 March 2018

Vincent Stannus joins the lab to conduct his Senior Research Project on within-species morphometric transformations of avian eggs. Vince is the fifth Tucson/Oro Valley high school senior to conduct his senior research in the lab.

4 March 2018

21 February 2018

In a new paper we show that subsampling of preexisting biochemical network is a dominant mode of avian carotenoid evolution over the last 50 million years. The discovery empirically illustrates a fundamental requirement of organismal evolution – historical continuity of past and present functional associations.

9 February 2018

Andrew Vizzerra - a recipient of 2017 President’s Award for Educational Achievement and UA's Excellence Award - joins the Lab to study morphometric consequences of the evolution of egg shell porosity. The project, which is also a part of Caitlin Davey's thesis, is based on the dataset of thousands of samples linked by multigenerational pedigree and spanning one of the largest climatic gradients possible within a species' distribution.

1 February 2018

An award-winning science journalist and writer Emily Voigt writes about our research in The Atlantic's essay on the effects of bird feeders on beak evolution in house finches.

15 January 2018

In a new Evolution paper we characterize the evolution of a mechanistic link that enables metabolic systems to retain and install previously adaptive responses - the very basis of dynamic restoration of a phenotype under an environmental change. 589 ornament census photos of 74 free-living house finches whom we followed very closely from birth to death for this study compose an average male on the cover.

5 January 2018

The lab will present a synthesis of new ideas on the Control Theory of Evolution at Santa Fe Institute Workshop"Integrating Inheritance and Development" alongside an exceptional lineup of speakers working in the field .

15 November 2017

For evolution to proceed, the maintenance of a currently adaptive configuration of traits must not preclude the incorporation of innovation in the same traits. In a new paper we propose a novel mechanistic principle that clarifies how local adaptation can be reconciled with continuity of evolution.

5 October 2017

18 September 2017

Alex receives The 2017 College of Science Distinguished Career Teaching Award. The (in)famous ECOL 330: Evolution of Animal Form and Function continues to live up to unrealistically "high expectations of learning, creativity, discussion, and discovery" cited in the 2007 Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2018, the course will be significantly restructured.

1 September 2017

Not exactly the lab news, obviously, but exciting that Noam Chomsky — the most cited scholar in history, a founder of several fields in cognitive sciences, whose list of theories has to be alphabetized in biographies — joins our faculty at the University of Arizona. Now instead of getting up at dawn to stay in line with 6,000 others to secure a seat at his lectures on Universal Grammar or the Origin of Language on his previous Tucson visits, one can just walk down the hallway...

26 August 2017

The Lab presented seven papers at the evolution meetings this summer, including work on the evolution of feather microstructure, coevolution of flux and topology in metabolic networks, ontogenetic resolution of the "curse of dimensionality" in beak microevolution, and an invited talk on network controllability at Network Biology symposium at XVI ESEB Congress in Groningen. The ESEB Congress also featured the Plenary Address by Renee Duckworth.

20 August 2017

Melissa Durham joins the Lab to study microevolution of avian carotenoid networks. National Honor Society inductee (for two consecutive years...), Melissa brings with her an unusual combination of background in physics, engineering, and biology.

27 June 2017

A new coverpaper in Journal of Evolutionary Biology reports unexpected diversity in metabolic network structures in a wild bird population and argues that evolutionary diversification and local adaptations in carotenoid metabolism depend more on the gain or loss of enzymatic reactions than on changes in metabolic flux within a network structure.

1 June 2017

Gillian Griffen joins two projects: examining the evolution of metabolic networks across recently established populations of house finches in Montana and the evolution of feather microstructure in relation to carotenoid deposition. In addition to her interests and background in biology, Gillian has built an extensive and successful career in business ownership and management.

18 May 2017

24 April 2017

Jakob Abtahi (right) pictured here with Xander Posner, received 2nd Place Prize for his poster "Precise adaptation without loss of adaptive potential: An example from avian beak evolution".

4 February 2017

Our bobcat inserting itself into one of the most celebrated mutualistic interactions in Sonoran Desert is the frontpage of Arizona Daily Star — the state largest newspaper. This is our fourth (e.g., #3) cover with the newspaper. The original photo is here.

A year after winning most of the Department's top research awards, Sarah is now awarded NSF's GRFP for her proposal "Colorful pigments: Analyzing the evolution of avian carotenoids" and will continue her doctoral research in Julia Clarke's Lab in UT Austin.

16 May 2017

The Lab presents four posters at the 2017 EEB Undergraduate Research Symposium. Adam Welu presented a summary of this Honor Thesis (defended on 5 May 2017) on "The biochemical basis of within species color polymorphism". Jakob Abtahi talked about his current work: "Precise adaptation without loss of adaptive potential". Caitlin Davey discussed "Metabolic divergence of ecologically distinct taxa" analysing data from nearly 300 species, Xander Posner talked about the evolution of controllability in complex directed networks — the Lab's Next Big Project.

15 March 2017

Our cover of the 2017 March/April issue of Montana Magazine highlights the main feature on novel biomechancs of flying squirrel's flight. According to the publishers, it is the most popular issue of the last several years.

15 January 2017

Developmental channeling of structural neurological trade-offs is central to the origins of adaptive behavioral complexity, according to new paper in Advances in the Study of Behavior. With Renee Duckworth and Ahva Potticary

1 January 2017

Jakob brings his interest in cellular and molecular biology to the Evolution in the Last Best Place project, investigating ontogenetic transformations in beak tissues during population diversification in Montana's house finches.

13 November 2016

"The winning image combines ephemerality with constancy and emergence with predictability,” says judge and award-winning nature photographer Alex Badyaev in a statement, "and in doing so, it captures the essence of this species’ natural history—an explosive, once-in-a-lifetime, mating dance of one of the world’s shortest-lived animals triggered and revealed by the millions-of-years old light of distant stars”. The winner and 12 finalists (also here and here) of the Royal Society Photography Competition were selected from more than 1,000 entries from dozens of countries.

5 June 2016

Courtney's interests at the interface of natural history and evolutionary biology will facilitate her studies of directional evolutionary transitions in within-species polymorphisms.

1 March 2017

The lab's side project on evolutionary innovations in flying squirrels made the front page and a multipage Sunday Territory feature of Missoulian, the largest newspaper in the state of Montana.

The Lab students presented 6 (!) comprehensive papers at the 2016 EEB Poster session. Caitlin Davey analyzed correspondence between ecological specialization and metabolic complexity across 250 species, Emmet Andrews talked about structural and dynamic subsampling of shared traits in sexual dimorphisms, Xander Posner presented the test of new approach for analysing coevolution of controllability and complexity, Sarah Davis discussed the origin of novel color phenotypes during population divergence, and Adam Welu presented in-depth analysis of the biochemical basis of within-species polymorphisms.

26 April 2016

The inaugural issue of the California Academy of Sciences' new bioGraphic, "an innovative new magazine showcasing biodiversity and extraordinary scientific discoveries", highlights two (1, 2) of the lab's collaborative projects.

25 April 2016

25 April 2016

Sarah Davis in the Winner of the 2016 Excellence in Research Award! Following her other recent top research awards, Sarah receives the prestigious 2016 Excellence in Research Award from the Department (and is nominated for the College of Science Excellence in Research Award). Between interviewing at top graduate schools across the country and considering various doctoral offers, Sarah is finishing up her thesis in the Lab.

1 March 2016

Following recent keynote to a few hundred brilliant undergrads, Alex had now faced a much more intimidating convention of a few hundred forged-in-fire high school teachers. The talk seemed to have went well...

26 January 2016

Arizona Daily Star puts us on its cover, highlights two (1, 2) lab research projects in its Science 2016 section, and uses our photo to celebrate state's birthday. This is our third cover with this newspaper.

1 March 2016

Alexander Posner brings his interests in evolutionary anthropology and training in mathematics to a variety of research projects in the lab. Among his many recognitions, Xander is a National Scholar and a recipient of four consecutive Awards for Academic Excellence (2010-4).

25 August 2015

"Ubiquitous, but previously overlooked, structural property of underlying metabolic networks produces cycles of carotenoid diversification in birds ", says our new major paper published this week in Biology Direct, succinctly summarizing in 20 pages (+ about 70 pages more in Supplementary) ten years of work and thinking. Funded by the Packard Fellowship, this is our best scientific work to date.

1 July 2015

1 September 2015

If you ever wondered how beavers fell giant trees directionally (in a crashing violation of The Central Place Foraging Theory), read a new cover feature in National Wildlife or see the photos for the first popular summary of this recently completed long-term project.

20 April 2015

Caitlin Davey joins the lab officially, having worked with us since her high school. Caitlin will continue investigate the mechanisms behind sex differences in feather microstructure.

12 April 2015

Emmet Andrews joins the lab. In his UBRP and Honors Thesis study, Emmet will address the correspondence between dynamic and static properties of complex biochemical networks.

15 April 2015

Sarah Davis receives the First Place Award (Emergent Category) for her poster at the 2015 EEB Undergraduate Research Session. The lab’s students presents three additional excellent posters at the event: Adam Welu with "Do changes in enzymatic network underlie age-dependent optimization of carotenoid displays in a bird?", Victoria Farrar with "Evolution of novel color phenotypes during population establishment: Genetic, biochemical, and ecological considerations", and Tayler LaSharr (last year's First Place Winner) with "Mechanisms influencing distribution and the coexistence of passerine species"

20 March 2015

Postdoc Dawn Higginson's new paper in American Naturalist — "Causes of discordance between allometries at and above species level" — uses sophisticated phylogenetic techniques to examine the effect of rapidly evolving developmental trajectories of complex and specialized phenotypes on the long-term evolutionary allometries and tissue trade-offs across 30 species of diving beetles. The study builds on Dawn's previous discoveries of explosive evolutionary diversification in sperm morphology (Evolution, Biol Reviews) and corresponding sex coevolution (PNAS) in this group.

25 March 2015

Erin Morrison is awarded a prestigious 2015 Galileo Circle Scholarship of the College of Science in recognition of her "truly exceptional level of accomplishments in research and teaching". Erin is the Lab's fourth graduate Galileo Fellow.

15 March 2015

Victoria Farrar continues her unprecedented sequence of awards for excellent research. In addition to last month's Leslie N. Goodding Scholar Award, Victoria is now selected by the Department for the 2015 Excellence in Research Award and by the College of Science as a 2015 Galileo Circle Undergraduate Research Scholar (the Lab's third undergraduate Galileo Fellow). This year, the lab will have two Galileo Scholars at the University Galileo Award reception on April 7th.

15 March 2015

10 March 2015

Alex gives a short interview to the Natural History Museum in London, which also posts the video of the BBC Award reception, featuring this year's famous guests.

21 December 2014

In an early New Year's present, the President signs the RMF Heritage Act permanently protecting iconic Rocky Mountain Front in Montana from oil development that seemed unstoppable just a few months ago. Some of the key players who pushed for the legislature against all odds over the years gather to celebrate. Truly unique area, that consistenly ranks in the upper 1% of North American biological diversity is the site of much of The Lab's field, scientific, and wilderness advocacy efforts for the last 20 years, as well as the center of our two largest ongoing field projects.

10 December 2014

Victoria Farrar is 2014 Leslie N. Goodding Scholar! The Award recognizes Victoria's excellence in scholarship and her exceptional research record. The scholarship will support Victoria's Honor Thesis on investigating evolutionary trajectories of complex color phenotypes during population establishment and differentiation. Hear Victoria talk about her earlier biology project on KXCI 91.3FM.

29 October 2014

“A truly enchanted image that tells a complete story in a single frame.The lighting is as delicate as the setting; outcompeting tens of thousands of entries this year and trumping tigers, gorillas, elephants, cougars and other big charismatic animals — here is a little mouse... ” said legendary National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting in his introduction of the award. In 2014, the panel of international jury evaluated more than 42,000 entries from 96 countries. This is Alex Badyaev's third Winner title in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions.

29 October 2014

The Awards, celebrating the 50th year of the world’s largest and most prestigious nature photography competition, were presented by legendary BBC natural history presenter Sir David Attenborough and Her Royal Highness Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, at a black tie gala ceremony in London’s Natural History Museum. Prior to the Award ceremony, Badyaev was selected to accompany The Duchess of Cambridge as she viewed and discussed the 50th BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibit."